TOKYO -- Sadaharu Oh played 22 seasons, hit 868 career home runs, won 15 home run titles, nine MVP awards, five batting titles, two triple crowns and led his team to 11 championships. But Japan's greatest player never got a chance to test himself in the major leagues.

	“	As far as the adjustments he might need to make, he's a different player than Ichiro, who sort of jumped in and never looked back. Being a power hitter it may take him a little longer, it may not. But when all is said and done, he will be a tremendous player. ”
		— Jason Giambi, on Hideki Matsui

"Back when I played there were no opportunities for me to cross over," Oh said through a translator. "If there had been, I would have probably done it. I am very envious of the modern players."

Oh threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the major league Japan tour Saturday night and then watched Hideki (Godzilla) Matsui play what will almost certainly be his final game with the Yomuiri (Tokyo) Giants before joining the Japanese players who have done what Oh could not -- leave Japan for the major leagues.

The Giants center fielder singled in four at-bats in the series-opening game when the major league All-Stars routed Japan League champion Yomuiri 8-1 at the sold out Tokyo Dome, with Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi twice hitting back-to-back home runs.

Saturday's game was the only one against the Giants, but Matsui will play the remaining seven games of the tour on the Japan League All-Star team. And then he will decide which major league uniform he'll wear. Matsui, who announced last week that he will become a free agent and sign with a major league team, is eligible to begin official negotiations with big league teams Wednesday.

"I haven't made up my mind," Matsui said through a translator Saturday. "I won't consider it until this series is over. Then I would like to negotiate and I would like to speak with everyone. Truthfully, that's the way it stands. I'm going to take some time and I'm going to find the correct place, the right place. We'll see."

That's what he says, but almost everyone assumes that it is a virtual lock Matsui will sign with the Yankees. One, he has said that he wants to play on the East Coast and with a perennial contender. Two, he is accustomed to playing for the country's most famous and successful team.

And three, Matsui is believed to still feel loyalty to the Giants and they would prefer that he signs with New York because the club's cable network has a working relationship with the Yankees' YES network. Matsui says he will handle his own negotiations with the help of an advisory board, and the speculation is that the board includes Yomiuri lawyers.

Matsui even echoed the Yankees party line when he described a 1999 visit to Yankee Stadium, saying, "I felt the (stadium's) tradition. I felt the history."

"I know we would be excited to have him," Giambi said. "He would be used to what goes on in New York already because the Giants are the Yankees of Japan."

Thanks to Bonds and Giambi, the major league All-Stars took such an early, commanding lead Saturday that the Giants never were really in the game. But Matsui had the crowd roaring and chanting, "Home run, Matsui! Home run, Matsui!" when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth for his final at-bat with the Giants. He lined out hard to short against Minnesota reliever J.C. Romero and received an appreciative ovation when he returned to the dugout.

"(My impression) is he is very well liked by his fans," Bernie Williams said of his probable new outfield partner.

While Ichiro is 5-9 and 160 pounds, Matsui is tall and solidly built.

"I think he can play in the big leagues," Minnesota catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "He's a big guy and he's got a good swing. He hit a ball hard off J.C. and you don't usually see a left-handed hitter do that."

"As far as the adjustments he might need to make, he's a different player than Ichiro, who sort of jumped in and never looked back," Giambi said. "Being a power hitter it may take him a little longer, it may not. But when all is said and done, he will be a tremendous player."

Said Bonds: "Right now, all eyes are on him."

And meanwhile, Oh can only wonder what might have been.

"As you can tell, I'm not a big guy and I'm not built like Popeye so it probably would have been impossible for me to achieve the kind of numbers I had over here," he said. "But, as a Japanese home run hitter, I would have done accordingly."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at cuffscaple@hotmail.com.